Template talk:Distinguish

I was just wondering if there is a reason that you are requiring the uses of this template to include the [[, ]] around the argument? Rather than including them from the template?

— Tilleen ^(talk) 03:55, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

No reason at all, except I put something together with my limited knowledge :P. I think it would be better to include it in the template, but I have no clue how to implement it.

JonPardon (talk) 15:08, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Remember, everything in a template is processed as if it is in the page it is transcluded into. So you do it in the same way as you would in a normal document, by putting them around the subject, or link.

— Tilleen ^(talk) 20:38, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks! I fixed it. I noticed something else though, there is a ' appearing when the explanation parameter isn't used. See the example in the documentation. You know why that is happening and how it can be fixed?

JonPardon (talk) 20:52, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I know why it is happening. :-)

It is because when that parameter is not passed, the output ends up being '''', and with the way this parser works, the first 3 quotes are taken to be a beginning of a bold block of text. The last quote does not have any meaning to the parser, so it is just displayed normally. The way around it that I can think of is, to put the entire line inside an #if: checking too see if it has a value before displaying anything. See the https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:ParserFunctions#.23if for more information.

— Tilleen ^(talk) 23:14, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Great explanation and solution. Thanks for the help!

JonPardon (talk) 19:32, 14 February 2017 (UTC)